Riders: YMMB, Jen, Dawn
Miles: No clue / short
Trail Conditions: Dry
Whoops, Yikes, & Oh-Sheets: Jen - 1 Yikes for her very first (and graceful) endo.
Notes: When a new friend shows up at your house with the most kick-ass, PLUSH, cross-country, full-suspension bike in hand (women's specific, Specialized Safire, for those of you who're asking), you know it's time for a ride.
:-)
Jen & Dawn came to visit YMMB for the 4th of July weekend with bikes in tow.
Jen, a longtime road warrior (on the bike and the stage), was/is in the market for some fat tire fun and wanted to get a taste of what all this madness is about.
Dawn, a seasoned MTB vet (with the scars and stories to prove it) was ready for anything the trail could throw at her with her pimped out bike, knee pads, & body armor (good to have, but not needed for a Swansea ride as she would soon find out.) ;-)
YMMB, on the other hand, had yet to hit the trails this season and had limited knowledge of the terrain thanks to OMMB always leading the way & YMMB not paying enough attention. LOL!
The morning started with breaking into OMMB & ATK's house and shed to "borrow" a couple bikes for YMMB & Jen. Really digging the "alarm" that scared the bajeebees out of me after I opened the shed. Although, I suppose that's what it's there for, and lucky I know the code. :-)
Jen was like Goldilocks on ATK's bike as OMMB & ATK (who were vacationing in Hawai'i) had already had visitors that came and switched seat heights, etc. on some of the bikes in the shed. I wonder what their reaction to the shed alarm was?!?! After a little trial and error, ATK's bike for Jen was "just right".
YMMB opted for the "extra" bike and took the 29er out for his first time on the trails.
Bumped into Bob from Bikeworks at the trailhead and caught up for a little while. He warned us that it was buggy and to just keep moving.
We probably only spent 30-40 minutes in the woods, but it gave Jen enough of a taste to spend a good amount of the post-ride afternoon searching eBay for a Women's Specific, 29er, Full-Suspension bike (a tall -expensive- order as she soon discovered!).
Ended up finding some of the fun, windy (as in twisting, not blowing from the sky), singletrack stuff, so it made for a fun, quick ride.
BTW, the 29er eats up those old, crumbled fieldstone wall crossings as well as treefall that blocks the trails. Not sure that OMMB is allowed to have this bike back. LOL!
Jen chalked up her first 'Yikes' as she endo'd on a descent; Dawn & YMMB kept giving her pointers throughout the ride, and she's hooked.
We did some bike swapping toward the end of the ride so that Dawn could try out the 29er for a minute and bumped into a very fashionable rider who was kind enough to snap this photo for us (though, he was a bit winded and shaky as you can tell from the super-in-focus (NOT) pic).
All in all, a good introduction for Jen and a great time with new friends with tires in the woods. Looks like we're going to add a couple new friends to the SMGR before the summer is out.
:-)
Peace.
YMMB
No comments:
Post a Comment